An Underdark

[Wrick]

I'm somewhat of a novice DM, still trying to tie up loose-ends and the such for creating a D&D setting. My players, all six of them, drafted me for it, not because of anything but my love for reading the books. I get a book. Sit down and read it in about a few hours. I accumulate what I like and use it. So I own half of the entire Wotc 3rd edition books, still buying many more ((Sad, I know)).

Now, this set of particular players always plays well with one another. Three of them are DMs. One does the Realms, another does Eberron, and the final one throws us in Greyhawk. So I wanted something fresh, I made my own world. It's been half a year, I've done everything. I have over 60 countries each with at least a 150 cities. I have the exact amount of gold in the world ((Including the treasure that was stolen by dragons and Gobos)) I have elves, dwarves, humans, halflings, everything. I even made a pantheon. I even made a solar system. Here is my problem. An Underdark. I tried passing on it, but all of them are adament about it ((Two love Illithids, three are Drow lovers, and one IS a Duerro))

I've not read any books on the Realms, so I don't know much about Drizz't. Our campaigns avoided the Underdark. I know nothing about it. . .If anyone has any tips, resources or anything that could help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Crothian]

THe ?Underdark is something very FR, so what you want to do is make it different. In the FR it is a compination of magically made caves and natural ones.

So, what if thousnads of years ago the surface people all ganged up on a nice if unloved race (use whomever) and so since they couldn't kill them all they built extensive underground tunnels and forced them to live below the earth. The underdark races are the ancestors and they want revenge. So the PCs get involved thinking the underdark creatures are evil, but it turns out they are the ones betrayed by the others.

The underdark is just an insanely huge group of caves that go undeneath about everything.

 

[Wrick]

That's actually a good Idea. . .Only if the players would let me. I know I have the final say, but the players are adamant about having Drow and Mindflayers. I am the master of Illithid, as I got to do a small DMing for my own module, as a horror. I can just throw ol' squidfaces on the moon or another planet.

But Drow. . .What should I do with them? Make them misunderstood?

 

[Drowbane]

I'm somewhat of a novice DM, still trying to tie up loose-ends and the such for creating a D&D setting. My players, all six of them, drafted me for it, not because of anything but my love for reading the books. I get a book. Sit down and read it in about a few hours. I accumulate what I like and use it. So I own half of the entire Wotc 3rd edition books, still buying many more ((Sad, I know))..

Sad? that makes you a GOD on these forums

Now, this set of particular players always plays well with one another. Three of them are DMs. One does the Realms, another does Eberron, and the final one throws us in Greyhawk. So I wanted something fresh, I made my own world. It's been half a year, I've done everything. I have over 60 countries each with at least a 150 cities. I have the exact amount of gold in the world ((Including the treasure that was stolen by dragons and Gobos)) I have elves, dwarves, humans, halflings, everything. I even made a pantheon. I even made a solar system. Here is my problem. An Underdark. I tried passing on it, but all of them are adament about it ((Two love Illithids, three are Drow lovers, and one IS a Duerro))

I've not read any books on the Realms, so I don't know much about Drizz't. Our campaigns avoided the Underdark. I know nothing about it. . .If anyone has any tips, resources or anything that could help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Buy the Underdark book yo, so what if its a Realms book. Its the most comprehensive guide to the Underdark yet.

That's actually a good Idea. . .Only if the players would let me. I know I have the final say, but the players are adamant about having Drow and Mindflayers. I am the master of Illithid, as I got to do a small DMing for my own module, as a horror. I can just throw ol' squidfaces on the moon or another planet.

But Drow. . .What should I do with them? Make them misunderstood?

Drow? Misunderstood? You could do that if you wanted. But why? They're E V I L. Nevermind Drizzt and his clones. Drow are an innately evil race. Messing with Drow is the only real complaint I have with Eberron. Keith reduced them to... um... ya know thats a whole other post... for another time.

Altering Drow? I may've missed something... why would you want to do this? Or moving Mindflayers? The Underdark isn't really supposed to be "inhabitable" by surface types... thats why it is so feared. Evil stuff lives down there, things that will eat you if you're lucky... or enslave you if you're not.

It is your world man, and from the sound of it your group has 3 or 4 other DMs. If you don't want an Underdark in your setting, don't have one. They can get thier Underdark-fix in the other games.

 

[Arkhandus]

Make your Underdark races, origins, and caverns different in some manner. Perhaps the Underdark is quite deep beneath the surface, and is the border realm between the Material Plane and the underworld (land of the dead/negative energy plane/abyss/whatever)? Perhaps the touch of the underworld has tainted the peoples that lived underground, driving some insane, making others delusional about what really caused them to live down there, and making the rest just plane morbid and violent. The lure of Death's realm has a strange pull on mortals though, and they do not just move up to the surface to escape; the draw of dark powers and terrible secrets makes them stay and practice vile arts. Whether the Underdark inhabitants were refugees from some ancient disaster, victims in a terrible war who fled underground for lack of any other escape route, or explorers who just became entrapped by the foul whispers of secret lore that came to them in their delving, it doesn't matter. Some may be willing inhabitants, others may have been forced down, and others might have lived there since they came up from the underworld. Perhaps some were forced out of the paradise of the underworld for some reason, and linger down in the Underdark as they sulk and try in vain to return to the paradise.

Drow are replaced in my Rhunaria homebrew setting with dark elves who were simply created by arcane experimentation on existing elves; the last Elven Mage-King, a true tyrant, experimented on everyone and everything, and at one point he developed a process to alter his most loyal subjects. These became dark elves, empowered with a strong affinity for arcane magic, including some inherant magical abilities, boosted Intelligence and Charisma, and a goodly boost to spell save DCs, effective caster level (for caster level checks and spell effects) and such. However, the dark elves were also physically weakened a bit, and somewhat cursed, but they had greater arcane power than anyone else.

After the Great Rebellion nearly commited genocide against elves, the dark elves took refuge by hiding deep underground, building elaborate cities in great caverns to await the Mage-King's return and build up their forces to eventually retake the surface world from those upstart humans, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and goblinoids. And the various arcanely-created beasts that had rebelled against the Mage-King, such as minotaurs and yuan-ti, and their own creations such as kobolds and lizardfolk. And the blasted sea elves that had joined in the rebellion just because they had never wanted to be experimented on (they too had been normal elves once before).

Rhunarian dark elves maintain most original elven traditions, and also maintain the old elven superiority complex and religious belief that the Spirit King had specifically created elvenkind to rule over the mortal domain. Rhunarian dark elves have a Persian sort of culture, but with some distinct differences. As opposed to Drow, the Rhunarian dark elves tend towards Lawful Evil rather than Chaotic Evil, and they are ruled by the greatest mages in their Order of Emirate Magi (rather than by clergy or matriarchs).

 

[Crothian]

That's actually a good Idea. . .Only if the players would let me. I know I have the final say, but the players are adamant about having Drow and Mindflayers. I am the master of Illithid, as I got to do a small DMing for my own module, as a horror. I can just throw ol' squidfaces on the moon or another planet.

But Drow. . .What should I do with them? Make them misunderstood?

THere you go. THe Drow and Mindflayers are the races forced underground by the other races so many years ago. THere is nothing wrong with making typically evil races, and allowing them to have once been good.